Detroit football fans are celebrating. HURRAY!!! They managed to defeat the Arizona Cardinals in their season opener. So-called wunderkind QB Matthew Stafford will no doubt be hailed as a hero once again. After all, the "come-back kid" pulled another one out.
Thing is, Arizona's not a very good team. For that matter, neither are the Lions. They remain horribly flawed in several areas. But a win is a win, dad gum it, and let another season of the usual misguided Honolulu blue and silver mania begin.
Yet the brutal truth is inescapable. The Lions aren't going anywhere this year, any more than they have in the last several decades. To think they are even remotely capable of contending for a championship this time around is pure folly.
But the suckers buy in every year. The "one born every minute" adage of P. T. Barnum seems to be in their collective DNA.
Matthew Stafford himself represents the classic good news/bad news scenario. He just re-upped with the Motown puddy-tats for another five years.
The good news is, the modern day Georgia Peach is financially set for life. Likely so are his kids and grand kids, if he ever has any. He's rolling in dough.
The bad news is, he just kissed any chance of winning a Super Bowl good-bye. By the time this contract expires, his "prime" years will be in the rear view mirror. And it ain't gonna happen in Detroit given their history, current situation, and projected future. They're light years away from being taken seriously as contenders.
The Lions may show flashes once in a great while, but overall they are, and have always been perhaps a C- team.
2017 will be no different. Lead em on. Then let em down. A sure as it gets cold in Detroit in the winter, you just KNOW it's going to happen -- again.
On another even more pitiful front are the Washington Nationals.
They just clinched the National League East. Pop, pop, pop, went the champagne bottles in the locker room afterwards.
Never mind that the rest of the teams in that division are pretty much awful. Between Miami, NY Mets, Atlanta, and Philly, none of them are within 5 games of even sporting a .500 record.
And like the Lions, you just KNOW the Nats will lead em on, only to let em down -- again. They'll choke in the postseason, because it's just what they do. Always have. Talent galore, but their collars always get super-tight in October.
See wunderkind pitcher Stephen Strasburg pitch another gem. This dude has some fabulous "stuff". He can bring 100 MPH heat and has a devastating breaking ball as well.
Alas, he's like the aforementioned Matthew Stafford used to be. A proverbial china doll waiting to break.
Can anybody remember the last time he made it through an entire season without injuring one part or another on his body? Especially his throwing arm?
And hey, there's still 20 games left. Plenty of time for him to go on the injured list, and don't be surprised if it happens -- again. Unfortunately, that appears to be in HIS DNA as well. Lead em on, then go on sick leave while still collecting millions, and the team collapses like a house of cards when Hurricane October hits.
It remains truly amazing how fans of both these teams continue to believe -- year, after year, after yet another decade, after having been led down the proverbial primrose path for so long, with a hammer waiting to hit them in the head at the end of it -- every year.
Hey, y'all go for it, if that's what yanks your crank.
Be happy, if even for a short while -- again.
But you just know what's going to eventually happen.
Or at least should by now.
Some things just aren't meant to be......
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